So, What Are You Reading? v. 2020

Discussion in 'Books' started by Ismitje, Jan 1, 2020.

  1. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

    [​IMG]

    For an escape from current events, you can't get much further in the English language than Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English. Read so far -- General Prologue and first five tales.

    "This world nis but a thurghfare ful of wo,
    And we been pilgrimes passinge to and fro."
     
  2. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    "The Miller pauseth fore to barffe.
    Upon the grounde his puek estraffe."
     
  3. Chesco United

    Chesco United Member+

    DC United
    Jun 24, 2001
    Chester County, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. The debut of Sam Spade.
     
    stphnsn, chaski and Dr. Wankler repped this.
  4. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    Airmail: The Letters of Robert Bly and Tomas Tranströmer, a thirty year correspondance of an American poet and a Swedish counterpart who eventually won the Nobel Prize in literature.
     
  5. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I read this last year. The frequency and degree of casual violence towards women really threw me. Not that there was some, but that there was so much.
     
  6. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    "Casual" is the right word for this world. And it.throws me, too. I gave up on this midway about 6 years for the same reason.
     
  7. Atouk

    Atouk BigSoccer Supporter

    DC United
    Apr 16, 2001
    Arlington, VA
    Club:
    Queens Park Rangers FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #32 Atouk, Jan 27, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2020
    [​IMG]

    Jack Schaefer -- Shane

    ...in anticipation of this LOA volume, scheduled for release in May.

    [​IMG]


    I read a bunch of westerns, but haven't previously read any of these four.
     
    Chesco United and Dr. Wankler repped this.
  8. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    Long Story Short: The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need which I saw at my college's library and which I read for reasons mysterious to me, but which has at least had the benefit of explaining to me why I find NPR-y things like The Moth Storytelling show and certain stretches of This American Life to be rather, well, irritating. By Margo Leitman
     
  9. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
  10. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    That has potential.
     
    Q*bert Jones III repped this.
  11. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Already I would rather read your critique than the book.
     
  12. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
  13. Chesco United

    Chesco United Member+

    DC United
    Jun 24, 2001
    Chester County, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    The Greek War of Independence by David Brewer.
     
  14. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    The Canterbury Tales is too much to read straight through, so I am alternating with my second project -- reading Jack Kerouac’s "The Duluoz Legend" in chronological order.

    "In my old age I intend to collect all my work and re-insert my pantheon of uniform names, leave the long shelf full of books there, and die happy. The whole thing forms one enormous comedy, seen through the eyes of poor Ti Jean (me), otherwise known as Jack Duluoz, the world of raging action and folly and also of gentle sweeness seen through the keyhole of his eye."​

    The second book is --

    Doctor Sax – Jack Kerouac

    [​IMG]

    “Memory and dream are intermixed in this mad universe.”

    The memory parts were excellent, but some of the dreams “sounded delirious and incoherent even to me.”
     
    Dr. Wankler repped this.
  15. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Very interesting that you posted this, because this is specifically why I came here.

    I have posted many, many of the books that I read alongside my kids over the years, and with the kids finally out of the house, I thought my read-along days were over. But, for the third time in 10 years, we are trying to adopt/gain guardianship of my god daughter. She's been with us for a month now, and this was the first thing we read together. Shane is just so stark, it's an easy book to introduce the concepts of plot, characterization, foreshadowing, metaphor, and the three-act structure. The first time I read Shane, I probably did it in a single setting so I had no time to think about the book, but man is it easy to predict what is going to happen. I'm pretty sure I haven't read any other western ever, so I don't know if the transparency is a genre convention or if it is unique to this work, but a fun read nevertheless. While looking for a copy in the library for Nasia to read, I did discover that Norton has a 350-page critical edition for this 110 page story. I think I'm going to order that.
     
    Q*bert Jones III and Atouk repped this.
  16. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    [​IMG]

    If Shea & Williams' Illuminatus! trilogy had a baby with GG Allen's provocation for provocation's sake, you'd end up with this book. A little too much pedophilia and gratuitous murder for my taste.
     
  17. Chesco United

    Chesco United Member+

    DC United
    Jun 24, 2001
    Chester County, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole. The adventures of Ignatius Reilly.
     
    Dr. Wankler repped this.
  18. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    Local Lives: Poems About the Pennsylvania Dutch, a 500 page collection that is basically Spoon River Anthology meets post-modern American epics published in 1975 by an under-looked poets (even by the standards of American poets being underlooked) Millen Brand.
     
    Chesco United repped this.
  19. chaski

    chaski Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 20, 2000
    redacted
    Club:
    Lisburn Distillery FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Maggie Cassidy - Jack Kerouac

    [​IMG]

    "Maggie Cassidy—that in its time must have been Casa d'Oro—sweet, dark, rich as peaches—dim to the senses like a great sad dream—"
     
    Dr. Wankler and Chesco United repped this.
  20. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Not how I pictured Maggie when I read the book.
     
    Q*bert Jones III repped this.
  21. TheJoeGreene

    TheJoeGreene Member+

    Aug 19, 2012
    The Lubbock Texas
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    [​IMG]

    As much about behavioral addiction as anything, it's a solid read that really went quickly for 320+ pages. Alter touches on some of the known items about when and how much time should be spent with devices, especially for children, while also going much deeper into the addiction side than I expected.
     
  22. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
  23. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    [​IMG]

    The Captive Mind, which is in fact a solid report on "the position of the intellectual, artist and writer behind the Iron Curtain" which profiles for men Milosz grew up with who found themselves working for the Stalinoid post-WWII Soviet-dominated Polish government, which the author Czeslaw Milosz represented for five years represented as an Ambassador, mostly stationed in DC. Third or fourth time I've made a run at it. I sure A.F. didn't know enough when I tried when I was 20, or even 30, but I think I have it now. Pretty harrowing. And darkly funny at times.
     
    Excape Goat and Q*bert Jones III repped this.
  24. Chesco United

    Chesco United Member+

    DC United
    Jun 24, 2001
    Chester County, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Argentina
    Zlata's Diary-Which was written by a Bosnian girl is a good read. Spoiler: She survives and also wrote the foreword.
     
    Q*bert Jones III and Dr. Wankler repped this.
  25. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    Just finished this one:
    [​IMG]

    Not sure when I will get to Whirlwind, but my ranking of Asian Saga novels is as follows:

    1. Shogun
    2. King Rat
    3. Noble House (barely ahead of...)
    4. Tai-Pan
    and in a distant 5th place....Gai-Jin
     

Share This Page